Shadow Boxing: The Journey of the African-American Boxer

Heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan refused to fight Peter Jackson because he was black.

Decades before baseball admitted Jackie Robinson into its lily white ranks, boxing was making strides to give African-American fighters a fair shake. But then as now, racial overtones influenced who fought who. Icons like John L. Sullivan and Jack Dempsey, even Jack Johnson, drew the color line when it came to fighting their black brothers. Part of it was cultural. Part of it was habit. Part of it was fear of losing to the better man…